North Korea demonstrated its missile production muscle during a nighttime parade displaying more intercontinental ballistic missiles, than ever before and hinting at a new solid-fuel weapon, state media reported.
Despite UN Security Council resolutions and sanctions, the country has continued with its ballistic missile program, testing dozens of advanced missiles last year.
“This time, Kim Jong Un let North Korea’s expanding tactical and long-range missile forces speak for themselves,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“The message Pyongyang wants to send internationally, demonstrating its capabilities to deter and coerce, will likely come in the form of solid-fuel missile tests and detonation of a miniaturised nuclear device.”
Eleven missiles could be enough to overwhelm current US missile defences, Ankit Panda of the United States–based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said on social media.
The Hwasong-17 was first tested last year.
Alongside them at the parade were what some analysts said could be a prototype or mock-up of a new solid-fuel ICBM in canister launchers.
Developing a solid-fuel ICBM has long been regarded as a critical goal for the country, as it would make nuclear missiles more difficult to detect and destroy during a conflict.
North Korea held the parade in Pyongyang to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of its army, according to KCNA.
The head of state, Kim Jong Un, attended with his daughter, who is tipped to take on a major position in the hereditary regime in the future.
The North Korean government was criticized by South Korea’s foreign ministry for organizing the event as its economic and food crises continue to deteriorate.
North Korea has said its missile program and nuclear weapons development fall under its sovereign right to self defence, and are necessary because of hostile policies by the United States and its allies.
In December, North Korea conducted the first static ground test of a large solid-propellant rocket motor at its Sohae Satellite Launching Station, but at the time it was unclear whether it was solely for the country’s submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) program, said Dave Schmerler, a researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS).
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